All The Men I Never Married Av Kim Moore

<p><i>All The Men I Never Married</i> is a collection of avowedly feminist intent, rich in ambiguity and with an understanding of the layers of complexity and complicity that exist between men and women.</p><p>Roughly chronological, with early poems about the innocent friendships of childhood that have a dreamy, anticipatory quality which foreshadows a later eroticism, but also hint at fear, with the awkward boy with ‘unwashed clothes’: ‘We hated the way you followed us around…’. Following on are the terrifying episodes of violence or near violence – incidents detailing escaping rape at a party, a friend suffering the consequences of defending herself from unwanted attention in a nightclub, and ‘that being in public is a dangerous thing’.</p><p>A near-innocuous episode on a fairground log flume sparks a narrative about power and consent, responsibility and opportunity: ‘to realise that someone can touch you/without asking, without speaking, without knowing your name … You remember this lesson your whole life…’. There are incursions and interruptions of having to endure ‘mansplaining’ with an exploration of the complexities and complicity and the risk of confrontation. A number of poems re-enact the ‘easy misogyny’ of everyday life and observe it from an appalled distance.</p>